We Need The Press

Hello.

We are doing more on censorship, but this is in a different area, one I am not going to support: censorship of the press. I believe that there are some things that need to be censored (see the last post I wrote), but I think that the American people have a right to know what is happening in the world, we can’t and the government can’t keep what is happening from the people. The piece I read agreed with this position.

The first thing that this piece brings to my attention is a case involving a man named Maher Hawash, who was (and still is, perhaps) in jail for a reason that was not explained to him. He had been “caught” by ex-attorney general, John Ashcroft who had been proven in the past to detain these people without reason as HE (not a jury) suspects them of terrorism. These people were generally detained without warning or reason.

The second thing was the case of a man named Jose Padilla, who, like Mr. Hawash, was kept without reason and without a trial. He was unable to see a lawyer or his family and has not been told why he was detained in the first place. And, this is the worst part, he is not the only one. This has happened to lots of people and the government has been trying to keep it under a “blanket of secrecy”.

And last, it is the press’ job to protect our rights and keep us informed. Without them, the American public would be unable to make informed decisions. If they don’t know what’s happening, they can’t do things like vote and our rights would crumble, without anyone knowing anything about it.

Even though I advocated censorship in the last piece that I wrote, I don’t believe in all censorship. I don’t believe that you should be able to show porn on a family channel on Saturday mornings. I do, however, believe that things like the press (and books) should not be censored. We need to know what’s going on. If the government doesn’t want us to know something, we should be worried about what they are trying to hide as they probably shouldn’t be doing it.

Goodbye.